The notion that our society, its education system and its intellectual
life, is characterised by a split between two cultures - the arts or
humanities on one hand, and the sciences on the other - has a long
history. But it was C. P. Snow's Rede lecture of 1959 that brought it to
prominence and began a public debate that is still raging in the media
today. This 50th anniversary printing of The Two Cultures and its
successor piece, A Second Look (in which Snow responded to the
controversy four years later) features an introduction by Stefan
Collini, charting the history and context of the debate, its
implications and its afterlife. The importance of science and technology
in policy run largely by non-scientists, the future for education and
research, and the problem of fragmentation threatening hopes for a
common culture are just some of the subjects discussed.